Better Public Services - next priorities

Resource information

Better Use of Data to Improve Outcomes

The State sector has to find new and better ways to improve outcomes for New Zealanders within a tight fiscal environment.

To do this government agencies need a better understanding than they currently have of:

how New Zealanders engage with government across agency boundaries

the impact government services have on New Zealanders

We're bringing together key data from across a range of agencies, and making it more easily available to the public sector and external researchers.

We will complete two streams of work.

Establishing a central agency Analysis and Insights team. This team will perform analysis on wider cross-agency data to identify patterns and better predict and understand the pathways, connections and outcomes of New Zealanders' interactions with government services.

Expanding Statistics New Zealand's Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI). The IDI is a linked longitudinal dataset that covers an extended range of pathways, transitions and outcomes information. Safe and secure access for approved researchers is provided to integrated and anonymised multi-agency data.

Protecting privacy of individuals is a central component of this work. This data will not be used to make targeted decisions about specific individuals. It is for research and analysis, to understand how sections of the population use government services and benefit from government interventions. By connecting this data, it can be used for research and policy purposes, without compromising the privacy of individuals.

The next steps now are for the central agencies and Statistics New Zealand, in partnership with other agencies, to prioritise the work programme and identify the data that will be required.